Page 98 of Heartless

‘Not at all. How are you doing it?’

‘I don’t do anything. I only make my creations from . . . unique materials.’

‘Unique in what way?’

He studied her for a long time and she began to doubt he would answer the question, before he finally said, ‘The materials with which my hats are crafted all come from the lands of the Red and White Queens.’

A shiver skittered down her back. ‘Of course. You’re from Chess, like Jest and Raven.’

His eyes narrowed. ‘He told you that?’

‘Yes. Because he trusts me.’ Her voice had an edge, and she could see the jolt of annoyance that flashed over Hatta’s features.

His jaw tightened, but he seemed to make the conscious decision to not be riled. He leaned back and picked some lint from his waistcoat. ‘I’m sure he had his reasons for telling you as much. But I am from Hearts originally. Grew up in my father’s hat shop before his untimely end encouraged me to search for my fate elsewhere, lest a similar fate find me. I found that fate in Chess.’

‘But . . . how? How did you find it?’

He shrugged. ‘A maze, a looking glass, a well . . . an abundance of desperation. It’s not all that important. What is important is that my journey taught me how I could avoid the madness that’s plagued my ancestors, and also how I could become the greatest hatter who has ever lived, oneitherside of the Looking Glass.’

He examined his nails. ‘I met Jest there, and he introduced me to the White King and Haigha. I was poor and alone, but the King granted me a pawnship, and it was determined that Haigha and I would become his royal messengers, skirting the edges of the battlefield to run correspondence between the Red and White Queendoms. On our travels I collected materials to be turned into hats for the Queen upon my return. I gathered pebbles and flowers and bones and I began to develop my reputation. Not just as a pawn or a messenger, but a hatter. The finest of hatters.’

‘I don’t understand,’ said Cath. ‘You went there to escape the fate of your father, so you wouldn’t go mad. Why become a hatter again?’

He held up a finger. ‘That is the trick of it. You see, Time works differently in Chess.’ He pulled out his pocket watch and let it dangle like a pendulum over his desk. ‘Sometimes he moves forward and sometimes he moves backward, sometimes he goes fast or slow and sometimes he pauses altogether. But as long as I keep moving, as long as I am always moving in the opposite direction from Time, he can never find me, and I can never meet my fate.’

His voice had a strange cadence to it, almost harmonizing with the quiet tick-ticking of the watch, and Cath wondered again if he was already mad, despite what he said.

She swallowed back these thoughts, determined to hear his story to the end. ‘But now you’ve come back to Hearts.’

‘So I have.’ He snapped his fist around the watch and dropped it back into his pocket. ‘Jest and Raven required a guide to help them across the Looking Glass, and the King and Queen needed a messenger to report back on their . . .’ He hesitated.

‘Mission,’ Cath supplied. ‘Jest told me they’re on a mission to stop a war.’

His face turned briefly sour again. ‘And did he tell you what the mission is?’

She wished with all her heart that she could say yes, but he hadn’t. She shook her head again.

‘Thank goodness for that,’ he muttered, then sighed. ‘Anyhow, I was the only one who knew the way, so Haigha and I came along. I had not expected the happy discovery that awaited me here in my childhood home. This side of the Looking Glass, all those baubles were no longer simply pebbles and bones. They do not make regular hats.’

‘They’re dangerous.’

‘They aremarvellous.No longer does a hat complete an outfit – now it completes you. I am providing a great service to the people of Hearts and I am going to go down in history as the greatest hatter this kingdom has ever known, and as I can return to Chess whenever I wish, I will not need to lose my sanity for it.’

‘But what do they do?’

‘Anything. Everything. They can make you a little braver, a little stronger, a little more charming or interesting or intelligent—’

‘Or they might turn you into an ingredient for soup!’ she bellowed. ‘You know your hats change people, so how can you be so sure this hat didn’t change the Turtle?’

He rubbed his temple. ‘My reputation is the foundation on which this business is built. I would do nothing to harm that.’ He trailed his fingers over the ribbons and buttons and feathers scattered across the desk. ‘We can’t all be so lucky as to be offered the hand of the King, after all.’

She ignored the jab, scanning the table’s accoutrements. His hats were quirky and whimsical and beautiful in their own strange ways. And now she knew they were more marvellous than even the sign outside proclaimed. Hatta would receive acclaim as a great hatter, and also an artist, but only if his reputation remained untarnished.

It wasn’t unlike what she wanted to accomplish with her bakery. Though she didn’t care to be wealthy, she did want to make a living on her craft. She wanted people to appreciate her not for a pretty face or a family title, but for what she could make with her own two hands.

‘I apologize if I offended you, Hatta,’ she said, before she could change her mind. ‘I did not come here to argue with you. I came to make you a deal.’

‘Ah, yes. Your proposal.’

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